Alumni Corner: Convention Plus by Marcus Wyche

BY MARCUS WYCHE, THIRD VICE PRESIDENT/ALUMNI ADVISOR DELTA DELTA, WASHINGTON DC ALUMNI ALUMNIADVISOR@MUPHIEPSILON.ORG

re you excited for convention? In these changing times, Mu Phi Epsilon is doing something unprecedented — facilitating an all-virtual international convention. The preparations are well underway. If you have not decided on convention, I encourage you to register and attend. Our Mu Phi “family reunion” is inexpensive and requires no travel. True, in-person interaction deepens fellowship and fraternal bonds in a unique way. But with the right balance of technology, acclimation, and imagination, I believe a virtual convention experience is a singular (and fun!) opportunity for more members to engage and connect with Mu Phi as we conduct business and facilitate convention programs.

The pandemic has forced our society and Fraternity to approach our 21st-century world differently and adapt. To think outside the box. To innovate. After the pandemic, a higher percentage of our labor force will telework; our schools and colleges are bound to increase remote instruction; artists will continue to find savvy ways to perform and display their work to far away audiences; social movements and political campaigns will blend old-school organizing with lightning-fast dissemination of information and calls to action.

I imagine future conventions and Mu Phi gatherings looking different. Online elements — live-streaming, virtual chats and workshops, et cetera — will likely become regular features of our conventions and district conferences. Members will regularly, even casually, videoconference across districts and provinces. Chapters will shift recruiting to prospective members with skill sets in computer science, online sound design, and social media. The horses have left the barn. The game has changed and will continue in ways we cannot predict.

Will all this happen overnight? No. Is all of it inevitable? Probably. Do we have to embrace every change? No. But, looking beyond the pandemic’s “great pause” in our world, there will be tools and methods we can use to complement and enhance our in-person music and service, so as to keep pace with the practical needs and realities necessary to keep our Fraternity relevant and thriving. Change, like human interaction, can be uneasy, with outcomes for good or ill. But with change and a modified normalcy comes opportunity.

The all-virtual convention will have our Fraternity’s signature trappings of workshops, music performances, and official business. It’s likely we’ll have an almost entirely new International Executive Board, but I don’t expect any controversial issues or earth-shattering changes in policy. Rather, I estimate the focus will be on resetting our fraternal GPS. All the same, I imagine this convention will signal the beginning of new directions in how Mu Phi goes about what it does. Departures over time in how we’ve traditionally done things may, for us, be the most radical outcome of all in this age of change.

As a closing thought, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the International Executive Board for its dedication, expertise, and collective wit and wisdom; the Alumni chapters and District Directors for your patience, support, and work at the local levels; and you, the members, for your loyalty to Mu Phi Epsilon and embodying the ideals of Music, Friendship, and Harmony.

Looking forward to “seeing” you at the convention!

IAN WIESE, BETA, BOSTON ALUMNI, IANWEISE.COM

I get it. The world right now has been completely turned upside down. COVID-19 forced us all indoors, sitting on computers using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet day in and day out, going to classes while our schools stayed completely closed. We hid in our holes, practicing our instruments or using tools like Easy Virtual Choir or different video editing suites to make virtual performances. If you got lucky enough, maybe you were able to work with some of your close friends or housemates to perform in ad hoc ensembels through GroupMuse on Zoom.

Music, at least how we knew it, stopped.

That’s all starting to change now. With the vaccine rollout moving along across the U.S., by summer, we should all be on track to return to in-person school come Fall 2021. We will see our friends again, sit with our colleagues in classes, and perform in orchestras, wind ensembles, choirs, and chamber groups. With this return to normal comes a great opportunity for Mu Phi Epsilon, should you, as collegiate members, seize it. We as musicians and friends crave connection and being a part of a large group. Mu Phi Epsilon is a large group of musicians and friends, all working in harmony to further the causes of music, education, and therapy, beginning with our own community and extending through the rest of the world (sound familiar?). I see this as a match that needs to be made, not only for Mu Phi Epsilon as a fraternity but for all of us as musicians and colleagues.

When we are back in person again, drive up your membership. Bring in new students at your schools to your chapters. Go out into the community and volunteer as much as you possibly can. Perform a Mu Phi Epsilon recital at your schools; if you can, make it a benefit concert to whatever charity you want to donate to (you will get lots of support if you donate to frontline workers). Make Mu Phi a presence at your school, for the first time if not once again. The end of COVID lockdowns presents a unique opportunity for all of us to expand our chapters, gain new friends, and bring music back with a lion’s roar.

I know it’s been tough. It’s been tough for me, for you, for all of us. If we put our minds to it, though, we can get back to normal, or something even better than what was once our normal. I know we can do this. Will you join us all in this good cause? Mu Phi Epsilon as a whole will thank you for it if you do. Other musicians will thank you. You, in time, will also thank you for your work. We can do this.

Zooming INTO THEFutureAt this time, the Fraternity is working on a revised schedule and fee structure. It is our hope to get this information published and communicated with the membership as soon as possible. Please check the website regularly for updates.

On behalf of the IEB, thank you for your patience and support.

International President